I received a ton of books for Christmas (my family and friends know me so well!), some of which were from my TBR list, but some, like The Reformatory, were books that I wasn't familiar with.
However, I'm so glad this book was brought to my attention. While a work of fiction, it pays homage to several of Due's relatives, and testifies to the very real horrors of the Jim Crow South and the notorious Dozier's School for Boys.
"I don't b'lieve in 'evil' most ways. I believe in the devil, all right, but man don't need no help from Satan to do what folks call 'evil.' Man do evil ev'ry day and call it doin' their job."
The story is set in 1950 in the small town of Gracetown, Florida, where Gloria Stephens and her younger brother Robbie are struggling to get by on their own. Shortly after losing their mother to cancer, their father was forced to flee town to avoid lynching.
This left Gloria and Robbie in the care of their godmother, the loving, feisty, somewhat senile Miz Lottie.
Both Stephens children have unique gifts: Robbie has the ability to see ghosts, often seeing their mother watching over him from the shadows. Meanwhile, Gloria can sense people's futures by looking into their eyes. She sensed that their mother was dying long before the diagnosis came.
When Robbie gets into an altercation with one of the most powerful families in Gracetown, he is arrested and sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys.
Gloria's senses are overwhelmed with the dread of things to come.
"Gloria had always found it silly that so much effort went into trying to send humans to space instead of learning how to get along on Earth."
When Robbie arrives at the school, which he soon discovers is more like a prison, he begins to see ghosts around every corner. In the field, he feels invisible flames and hears the screams of boys that burned to death in an outbuilding that once stood there. In the kitchen, he sees a teenage boy with a knife buried in his back. On his first visit to the Funhouse, where boys are sent for punishments, Robbie sees more ghosts than he can count—and he's been told that the Funhouse isn't the worst punishment there is.
In the middle of it all is the school's superintendent, Warden Fenton J. Haddock.
Haddock rules the school and its grounds with an iron fist, and takes a special interest in Robbie after learning about his gift. He employs Robbie as his haint catcher (although the spirits don't like being called haints, they quickly tell Robbie so), promising extra privileges for Robbie and protection for his friends.
You see, Haddock is terrified of the spirits, afraid they'll bring his secrets to light—in particular, how they died and who killed them. Most of all, he fears that they'll lead someone to the hidden drawer in his desk.
One spirit has grown particularly close to Robbie, and promises to help him escape—on one condition: Robbie steals the contents of Haddock's secret drawer, and brings his crimes to justice.
Back home, dark rumors of the school's history begin to spread, and Gloria, Miz Lottie, and some trusted friends and neighbors hatch a daring plan to break Robbie out before it's too late.
"I created Haddock as an amalgam of a system of violence in children’s incarceration—but the truth is that no one person can explain away the reported events at the Dozier School, or the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, or the Indigenous “schools” in Canada where so many children were buried. No one person can be blamed for our nation’s current nightmare of mass incarceration. The Reformatory has a central villain, but the actual villain is a system of dehumanization.”
— Tananarive Due, on The Reformatory
This was a nail-biting, heart-wrenching story from start to finish, and Due did an incredible job illustrating the terror that so many families were forced to live through during this period.
Robbie's character was inspired by her real-life relative, Robert Stephens, who was murdered at the Dozier's School for Boys in 1937 at just fifteen years old.
Due is part of a larger movement dedicated to bringing the crimes of Dozier's School for Boys to light. They petitioned for an excavation of Boot Hill, where the remains of those that died at the school were buried (another element of the fictional story that is, sadly, based in reality) and have been able to help dozens of families find closure. She also has done extensive research, even interviewing some survivors of Dozier's School for Boys, in order to keep this story as authentic as possible and highlight the horrors of what each of these young men went through.
However, despite its dark theme, Due still managed to write a beautiful story of hope, survival, and a reminder that those who love us are never truly gone.
"Sometimes the dead can help you fly."
This is such an important story that I strongly believe needed to be told, and I hope that you'll take the time to read it. If you haven't already, be sure to join me on Discord so we can discuss this book and many more!
As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope 2024 is treating you well!
'•.¸♡ Until next time! ♡¸.•'